Enchant game challenge

A few weeks ago I got an e-mail sent to me and the rest of my class that we would get visitors from Japan telling us about a new script code, Enchant. In Enchant the main purpose is the ability to make games faster and easier without the need to code as much and to prove this the manager made a game in a mere 90 seconds! Surpirsingly enough there weren’t even 30 % of the class present but of course I had to go, I love everything about Japan: they make the best games (huge Nintendo fan), their (food) culture and their beautiful language. What I wished I could’ve lived in Japan or at least known the most beautiful language ever: Japanese! I know for sure that one day I will travel there just to experience it myself, one day I hopefully will.

Anyway I thought that they would just hold a presentation and then it was “gg” but here’s the twist: At the end of the presentation they challenged everyone to form a team consisting of both programmers and artists to make a game using Enchant, and they would then pick one winner group based on the game they thought was the best. Everyone had at least 24 hours and the deadline was set to the next day. To hype us up even more the winner would further proceed to compete in Japan, and if you win there you’ll win a trip to San Fransisco if I recall correctly… Not only are the japanese stronger in my opinion when it comes to everything (okay I will stop with the stereotypes) games but they’ve had 6 months preparation time already (or 6 months until the deadline I’m note sure here)! It appeared that I ended in a “leftover group” and I was the only programmer… As it couldn’t be worse I had programming the next day and homework to do. Fortunately we were a really strong group as two made the art and graphics etc. while another artist made the coding, so really kudos to that. I wished I could’ve had more time with this project but at least I got to make the level design which is really fun albeit a bit frustrating at times…

Next day we managed to make the platform game called Old man and the Dog even though it definitely needed more time, but nonetheless we handed it in right in time before the deadline was expired. Phew! (The game is a platformer where you have to switch between two characters, and you have to proceed forward and overcome obstacles and help each other out in order to succeed, roughly speaking.) Now it was time for the results… Only one team could win… We were the last ones to present the game. We were about six groups competing against each other. After some thinking from the jury (who was the founder of Enchant I think), he decided that another group who made a zoombie run game would win, and that was really fair since the game was well-made. “However”, he continued, “I think there should be two winners”. Everyone got quiet and you could feel the tension in the air. “I think that another game had much potenital if given more time, and therefore, the creators of ‘Old man and the Dog’ win too.” What a plot twist! I got excited that we actually won, but this means that we have to work with the game along with school. It was really fun, and the two groups got one copy of an Enchant book. Nice! Now we have a deadline due the end of December, and I’m going to continue with the level design. Even though the odds are slim (much confidence here) this was and still is a great experience and most of all, fun!